Exploring the British Virgin Islands

In this video we finally make it out of Saint Martin and head over to the BVI on an overnight sail. The sail there was nice and fast and we arrived first thing in the morning in virgin gorda passing necker island on the way in . We learned later through Suzie that Obama was there the whole time we were in virgin gorda.
We decided to head over to the anchorage by the bitter end and got the dinghy ready to head over to customs to clear in.
Andrew from Caramba and I are typically the ones doing the clearing in and while he was still filling out paperwork I found myself at a loss when the immigration or customs person asked me for $1000. For a second I was at a loss for word but suddenly replied that if it was that expensive to clear in we would be leaving back to Saint Martin today as we did not have that kind of money. The guy waited a little bit then laughed and said he was joking all I had to pay was $11. Relieved I paid the amount (which I had to borrow from Andrew, who asked me what was the 1000$ was about) and headed out to find my dad, James and the kids.
We spent two days at the bitter end enjoying the pretty hotel beach and the amazingly fast wifi before heading to Spanish town and The Baths.
The anchorage there was a little rolly and we had to ask a boat that anchored next to us to move as we almost collided with them as we swung in a different direction. They kindly obliged but I felt bad as it was already dark and I wished they had anchored further away so we wouldn't have to ask.
The next morning we set off bright and early for the baths only to realize that there was no safe place to land the dinghy. We turned around back to the boat, picked up some money and decided to take a bus there instead. The Caramba's joined us and we all headed over to land as quick as possible as a cruise ship was already dropping off passengers that would soon crowd the bath.
We had an amazing time climbing on rocks and swimming in the secret pools hidden between the giant boulders. We were also happy that things turned out the way they did as the walk to the bath was quite pretty and we would have missed out on it if we had managed to land the dinghy.
After the bath we set out to cooper island but ended up anchoring in from of salt island as the anchorage there was calmer and only had one boat.
We ended up all agreeing that salt island was our favorite. It is uninhabited and has loads of hermit crabs running around and loads of coconuts to eat. My dad went on a coconut hunt and brought five or six back. James managed to find a rusty screwdriver and set out to show us how to open a coconut. For the next few days all we did was go to the beach let the kids play while my dad and I opened coconuts.
We also got a chance to go diving on the wreck of the Rhone while the kids were napping and my dad was looking after them. Andrew joined us and we had a blast looking at the corals and beautiful fishes and marine life that called the wreck home.
We also got an amazing surprise when one morning the catamaran anchored in front of us called over to offer us all the provisions they had left. It was a charter boat and they were heading back and gave us bags full of beer, coke, limes, cereals and charcoal. It was really awesome and made me like charter boats a bit more.
After salt island we headed over to Peter island but ended up anchoring in Norman island by the famous willy T floating bar. We anchored in 20m of water as the whole bay was full of moorings. The place was packed when we arrived and became almost empty the next day as most boats must have been there only for the weekend.
We said goodbye to Lindsey and Andrew on Caramba who had to leave to drop off his brother and wife who had come to visits and leave the next day for Saint Lucia to pick up their daughters and grand kids who had come for a visit.
We stayed another night and went over to explore the caves on the other side. I was very excited as I got to swim with a turtle for the first time, magical!
The next day we headed over to sopers hole and were so disappointed by the place (there was nothing to do and the anchorage wasn't very nice) that we almost straight away decided to leave and head back to Norman island. We ended up only making it to the Indian where we went for a dive while the kids napped and then decided to tack back and forth all the way up to marina cay.
From there we headed back to virgin gorda and the bitter end the next day and spent a few more days enjoying the beach and the free wifi.
We also tried to get some fresh fruits and veggies before leaving but found ourselves unable to pay the extortionate amount of money they were asking for things ($10 for pineapple!!!!).
Before leaving we looked at the weather and decided to head to Saba instead of Saint Martin as it looked like we could make it on one tack rather then having to tack back and forth so we stowed everything and set out on another overnight sail.